Summer Surge

Summers surge heaves us into a raging sea of activity that must be squeezed in before the first day of school arrives. If you homeschool then you get a pass from traditional time constraints, but, even so we want to ride the wave of summer until it comes crashing down, hurling us into fall nesting mode. I’m already feeling the pull of Fall, are you? By the school calendar summer has peaked like a rolling wave and is on the way back out to sea carrying with it fond memories of cookouts, camp-outs, and glamp-outs, family reunions, world travels and beach vacations. Good times ( #summer2018) have been shared and stored away in our memory bank ( or on I cloud ) for future reference. We did our best to fit in some much needed family time with those near and from a-far, as well as plenty of gardening and our annual beach respite at the cottage as well. Here’s a splash of our summer surge!

Let’s see. Where did we leave off in July? Oh yeah! We were on our way to the cottage for our annual vacation. I didn’t take any photos except this sunset on our last night there. We really tried to just UN plug and let the week unfold. It was just my hubby and I for the first few days and our son joined in the last part of the week. We celebrated my handsome Yankee’s birthday ( he turned 29, again… 😉 ) with a homemade pizza party. We got him a PizzaQue Outdoor Pizza Oven and made homemade pizza’s for ourselves and friends. He loved it! We ALL did! This little thing runs on propane so it’s perfect for any outdoor activity where friends and family gather. It requires a bit of practice to get the pizzas rolled out and various toppings added to keep a steady stream of pizzas coming out for guests, but the learning curve isn’t too steep. The stone heats up as high as 900 degrees so the pizza’s cook fast in under 8 minutes per pie.

Our son, Zach and I took care of the food preparations inside and my hubby did all the cooking outside. We’re bringing it to the cottage for Labor Day weekend and I promise to take photos this time. I’ll post some of our favorite recipes in my next blog, too!

My Aunt Karen ( Nan ) and Uncle Ray

The following week, we had company from home for a visit. Our other home. Reno, Nevada. When you move away from your where your grew your first roots amongst loving family and familiar landscapes it can take a very long time to feel at home in your new digs so when family and friends from home come for a visit we always feel like they bring a little piece of home for us to hold in our hearts until we meet again.

I’ve always had a close relationship with my Aunt Karen. We are November girls. She and my mom share the same birthday, four years apart on November, 18th. Her daughters is November 16th and mine is November 17th.

She used to babysit my brothers and I when we were little and she’s just been the best for keeping in touch through the miles since our move East 17 years ago. We are blessed they love us ( and Plymouth) so much!

They are the cutest. Always laughing and kidding with each other.

They celebrated their 4th wedding anniversary while they were here. Do you enjoy a good love story? Theirs is a neat one. After spending time with them together it’s easy to see that it was meant to be. Both of them had previous long marriages and lost their spouses to illness fairly close to one another. My aunt and Ray worked together for many years and the two couples were friends.

Their strong friendship got them through some tough times and now they are living a happy life and making the most of each day together. The grand-kids and great-grands keep them hopping between Nevada and California.

When they’re here they always stay at this quaint BnB on the Historic Plymouth Waterfront. It’s called By the Sea and it’s just adorable. The owners are lovely, the views are 5 star and the Inn itself is perfection. Decorated to a T in quaint New England cottage style. We highly recommend!

Our daughter posing with Plymouth Harbor in the background.

Rather than go to restaurants every evening we chose to spend our time on the deck enjoying wine, reminiscing and making new memories. We so love their visits!

It’s nearly impossible for me to get through a blog post without talking flowers but if you’ve been with me a while you know this! Thank you for indulging me, one more time.

I am wedded to my little suburban flower farm and garden. It feeds my soul like nothing else can. I guess you could say it’s my ” out there ” place. It might as well be a thousand acres because when I’m outside planting, watering, feeding, even just sitting that’s when my mind and heart are at peace and my best daydreams happen.

I think August is my favorite time in the garden. The summer blooming perennials are at their peak, the ornamental grasses are lush and full and the cutting garden is coming into it’s own. There is so much to choose from for designing and I love to play with different kinds of arrangements for fun!

This season I planted a basket of sweet potato vine and angel face to hang on the chicken coop.

I hung a window box of the back of my flower cart just for fun. It’s gotten a bit wild!

These are cut and come again zinnias that I direct sowed the first week of July.

I love zinnias and they are so easy to grow from seed. Just wait until the last frost date for your zone has passed and sow them directly in a sunny patch. Keep them moist until they pop through the soil then back off to every other day until they get going. Zinnias will go all summer long if you deadhead them often.

I love finding random shapes in the nooks and crannies of garden. This morning-glory vine has crept into the frame of the shed. It might be the only thing holding it together at this point. ( smile )

My handsome Yankee and I are squeezing in as many boat rides as we can before we take it out for the season. Don’t let Max fool you…He looks happy in this photo but he is NOT a boat dog. He barks non-stop when my hubby casts his line, or jumps off the boat for a swim. The herding instinct is strong with this one but, we couldn’t love him more! I can’t believe he turns 10 next month.

Ball jar arraignment from a July wedding I did.

I planted sunflower seeds today in hopes of having blooms for mid October. This is the latest I’ve ever done it so I’ll keep you posted on how that works out. I’m hopeful, but aren’t all Farmgirls who play in the dirt?

I hope you’ve all had a wonderful summer. The ropes have slackened ( a little ) and soon we’ll be sailing into Fall. Are you ready?

Until our next shoreline visit~ Stay cool and enjoy these salad days of summer.

Hi Deb, what a surprise to check your blog and find your fun story. We loved being in Plymouth and spending time with all of you. We brought some precious and fun memories home…so much laughter when we get together!! Thank you for the perfect holiday. Love always, The Great Aunt Nan and Uncle Ray

Your lead picture showing the waves and shoreline is exquisite! I love the blues, the blue-greens, the white foam and the deep blues. I’d like to have this on my wall!
You made me feel as though I was visiting with you and your relatives. Nice piece of writing!..Thanks for sharing.

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”
~ Mark Twain

Debbie Bosworth

is a certified farmgirl at heart. She’s happily married to her beach bum Yankee husband of 20 years. She went from career gal to being a creative homeschooling mom for two of her biggest blessings and hasn’t looked back since. Debbie left her lifelong home in the high desert of Northern Nevada 10 years ago and washed up on the shore of America’s hometown, Plymouth, MA, where she and her family are now firmly planted. They spend part of each summer in a tiny, off–grid beach cottage named “The Sea Horse.”

“I found a piece of my farmgirl heart when I discovered MaryJanesFarm. Suddenly, everything I loved just made more sense! I enjoy unwinding at the beach, writing, gardening, and turning yard-sale furniture into ‘Painted Ladies’ I’m passionate about living a creative life and encouraging others to ‘make each day their masterpiece.’”

Rebekah Teal

is a “MaryJane Farmgirl” who lives in a large metropolitan area. She is a lawyer who has worked in both criminal defense and prosecution. She has been a judge, a business woman and a stay-at-home mom. In addition to her law degree, she has a Masters of Theological Studies.

“Mustering up the courage to do the things you dream about,” she says, “is the essence of being a MaryJane Farmgirl.” Learning to live more organically and closer to nature is Rebekah’s current pursuit. She finds strength and encouragement through MaryJane’s writings, life, and products. And MaryJane’s Farmgirl Connection provides her a wealth of knowledge from true-blue farmgirls.

“Keep close to Nature’s heart … and break clear away once in awhile to climb a mountain or spend a week in the woods, to wash your spirit clean.”
~ John Muir

Cathi Belcher

an old-fashioned farmgirl with a pioneer spirit, lives in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. As a “lifelong learner” in the “Live-Free-or-Die” state, she fiercely values self-reliance, independence, freedom, and fresh mountain air. Married to her childhood sweetheart of 40+ years (a few of them “uphill climbs”), she’s had plenty of time to reinvent herself. From museum curator, restaurant owner, homeschool mom/conference speaker, to post-and-beam house builder and entrepreneur, she’s also a multi-media artist, with an obsession for off-grid living and alternative housing. Cathi owns and operates a 32-room mountain lodge. Her specialty has evolved to include “hermit hospitality” at her rustic cabin in the mountains, where she offers weekend workshops of special interest to women.

“Mountains speak to my soul, and farming is an important part of my heritage. I want to pass on my love of these things to others through my writing. Living in the mountains has its own particular challenges, but I delight in turning them into opportunities from which we can all learn and grow.”

Dori Troutman

Dori Troutman is the daughter of second generation cattle ranchers in New Mexico. She grew up working and playing on the ranch that her grandparents homesteaded in 1928. That ranch, with the old adobe home, is still in the family today. Dori and her husband always yearned for a ranch of their own. That dream came true when they retired to the beautiful green rolling hills of Tennessee. Truly a cattleman’s paradise!

Dori loves all things farmgirl and actually has known no other life but that. She loves to cook, craft, garden, and help with any and all things on their cattle farm.

Shery Jespersen

Previous Ranch Farmgirl,Oct 2009 – Nov 2013

Wyoming cattle rancher and outpost writer (rider), shares the “view from her saddle.” Shery is a leather and lace cowgirl-farmgirl who’s been horse-crazy all of her life. Her other interests include “junktiques,” arts and crafts, glamping, collecting antique china, and cultivating mirth.

Farmgirlis a condition
of the heart.

Alexandra Wilson

is a budding rural farmgirl living in Palmer, the agricultural seat of Alaska. Alex is a graduate student at Alaska Pacific University pursuing an M.S. in Outdoor and Environmental Education. She lives and works on the university’s 700 acre environmental education center, Spring Creek Farm. When Alex has time outside of school, she loves to rock climb, repurpose found objects, cross-country ski on the hay fields, travel, practice yoga, and cook with new-fangled ingredients.

Alex grew up near the Twin Cities and went to college in Madison, Wisconsin—both places where perfectly painted barns and rolling green farmland are just a short drive away. After college, she taught at a rural middle school in South Korea where she biked past verdant rice paddies and old women selling home-grown produce from sidewalk stoops. She was introduced to MaryJanesFarm after returning, and found in it what she’d been searching for—a group of incredible women living their lives in ways that benefit their families, their communities, and the greater environment. What an amazing group of farmgirls to be a part of!

Libbie Zenger

Previous Rural Farmgirl,June 2010 – Jan 2012

Libbie’s a small town farmgirl who lives in the high-desert Sevier Valley of Central Utah on a 140-year-old farm with her husband and two darling little farmboys—as well as 30 ewes; 60 new little lambs; a handful of rams; a lovely milk cow, Evelynn; an old horse, Doc; two dogs; a bunch o’ chickens; and two kitties.

René Groom

Previous Rural Farmgirl,April 2009 – May 2010

René lives in Washington state’s wine country. She grew up in the dry-land wheat fields of E. Washington, where learning to drive the family truck and tractors, and “snipe hunting,” were rites of passage. She has dirt under her nails and in her veins. In true farmgirl fashion, there is no place on Earth she would rather be than on the farm.

Farmgirl spirit can take root anywhere—dirt or no dirt.

Nicole Christensen

calls herself a knitter, jam-maker, and vintage enthusiast who "never met an antique sewing machine she didn't like." Born and raised in the great state of Texas, she now resides in suburban New England in picturesque Connecticut, just a stone’s throw from New York state.

Married for over twenty years to her Danish-born sweetheart, Nicole has worked in various fields and has been a world-traveler, entrepreneur, and homemaker, but considers being a mom her greatest accomplishment of all. In addition to blogging, she also teaches knitting professionally and is a Certified Master Gardener. Loving all things creative and domestic, Nicole considers her life’s motto to be “bloom where you are planted.”

Paula Spencer

Previous Suburban Farmgirl,October 2009 – October 2010

Paula is a mom of four and a journalist who’s partial to writing about common sense and women’s interests. She’s lived in five great farm states (Michigan, Iowa, New York, Tennessee, and now North Carolina), though never on a farm. She’s nevertheless inordinately fond of heirloom tomatoes, fine stitching, early mornings, and making pies. And sock monkeys.